Auction 97 spike in activity now working against holiday break
The Federal Communications Commission’s move to spur activity in the Auction 97 process appears to have worked, though now the spectrum auction is working against an upcoming scheduled break.
Since moving the auction to “stage three” before bidding began on Tuesday, per-round activity has fluctuated at a much higher level than activity before the move. Over the past two days, total new bids per round have come in as high as 191, with only four of 12 rounds not hitting at least 100 new bids.
The move to stage three requires bidders in the FCC spectrum auction to be active on at least 98% of their current bidding eligibility in each round or risk having to use an eligibility waiver or have their bidding eligibility reduced. Auction observers noted the move could indicate the FCC is looking to pressure bidders to put their final bids in on licenses in an attempt to squeeze out maximum value before the auction wraps up.
By the end of bidding on Wednesday, total proceeds had hit $44.276 billion, with each round still pitching in an average of approximately $30 million. While activity has definitely slowed compared with early action, the bidders remain content to empty out their coffers.
Most of the recent activity has centered on markets outside of the big-ticket items on up for bid, although a strange amount of activity has focused on licenses centered on San Antonio and Indianapolis, which have received numerous bids over the past two days. Overall, just one license of the 1,614 total licenses up for bid remains without a potential winning bid: the G-Block license centered on San Miguel, Colo.
The paired licenses up for bid include three 5×5 megahertz licenses (G-, H- and I-Blocks) and a single 10×10 megahertz license (J-Block). The G-Block licenses are carved into commercial market area-sized licenses, which total 734 licenses covering the country. The remaining blocks are economic area-sized that will total 176 licenses covering the country. The 15 megahertz of unpaired spectrum is split into two licenses, one with 5 megahertz of total spectrum parsed out on an EA basis, and the other with 10 megahertz of spectrum also in an EA configuration.
Holiday break scheduled
While bidding action remains active, the FCC announced plans for a holiday break in the proceedings. Bidding is scheduled to cease at the end of day on Dec. 23, picking back up two-weeks later on Jan. 5.
The auction is currently running six, 30-minute rounds per day, though if the FCC is looking to wrap up activity before the holiday that schedule could change as we get closer to the break. Past auctions have moved to as many as 16 rounds per day as they neared completion.
The auction is set to conclude when there are no bids in a single round. Past auctions have gone at least 161 rounds (Auction 66, AWS-1), while the 700 MHz auction (Auction 73) went to 261 rounds.
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